Third Time in 18 Years Raw Vegan

You may be surprised but this was just the third time in 18 years raw vegan that this happened and I felt it was important to share.

“They,” say you win some, you lose some, I would contend that with the “right” perspective you never really lose…

A rare and truly monumental event in my raw journey occurred on the way back from Stockholm with Kamilla and my parents.

We stopped at a little teeny restaurant that Kamilla had gone to with her family in the past in the middle of near nowhere, it was a really beautiful place as you can see in the video, but this is where it happened.

I checked the menu and didn’t really find anything that would work for me, luckily I had brought a big bag of ripe fruit, as I often do, so I asked the waitress if it would be ok for me to eat my fruit while everyone else ordered from the menu. To our surprise she said that I couldn’t eat the food I brought, this was the third time this has happened to me in my 18 years raw vegan, since 2004.

The first time this happened was in my first few years raw, the waitress said I couldn’t eat my berries at the table but then came back crying and apologized saying no problem at all, I can only guess her manager told her to. The second time was actually at a Hooters in west Edmonton mall, it was our last choice of restaurants but all the others were full btw. My whole family ordered and when I asked if I could eat my nectarines they said no, so I just went around the small patio fence our table was at, placed my nectarines on the table, and ate them standing beside everyone. Such a smart ass hey ahah!

Back to this story, my parents are really supportive and since that time at Hooters always said that if a restaurant doesn’t allow me to eat my food with them that we will just leave. With this in mind, seeing that we were in a rush, in the middle of nowhere, that I had lots of fruit and that I could tell they were excited about what was on the menu, I really didn’t want to make a big deal of it at all.

So I simply left the restaurant section, found a beautiful place on the patio, and enjoyed my grapes and donut peaches there, it was actually really peaceful and nice.

The moral of the story, it ain’t no big deal unless you make it a big deal.

I could have chosen to get huffy and puffy about it, to say it was unfair, to complain, or to get up and leave, but I tell you this felt a lot better and was easier on all of us.
At the end of the day too, it’s just one meal, and really three times out of 18 years raw vegan is not too bad!

A few extra tips for eating out;

When asking if you are allowed to eat some food that you have brought in it can be helpful to say, “I hope you can help me out”, or “I am on a special diet”, or “My Doctor said..” and then if able order a simple salad. People are more likely to receive it well if you ask first and explain that you have specific dietary needs and came prepared. For actually ordering, I find that it is often easiest to scan the menu for ingredients you may usually eat and then simply ask the waitress for those ingredients when ordering rather than asking for an item on the menu and listing off what you don’t want. More often I say, Id love a big salad with lots of mixed greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado if you have it, and some lemon wedges on the side.

For more check out this older post dedicated to Eating Out On the Raw Food Diet the Easy Way!

I hope my experience helps you enjoy going out as a raw vegan a ton more and that you find ease no matter what happens!